India unveils tougher rules for Facebook and Twitter

India announced new rules on Thursday to regulate large social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, the latest effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to tighten control over big tech companies.

The rules come after Twitter ignored orders to drop content from farmers’ protests, fueling the government’s zeal, dating back to 2018, to crack down on documents it considers disinformation or illegal.

The new measures will require major social media companies to put in place a grievance mechanism and designate executives to coordinate with law enforcement, the government said in a press release.

The government has said guidelines in its digital media code of ethics are necessary to hold social media and other businesses accountable for abuse and abuse.

Social media companies should be “more responsible and responsible,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister of information technology, told reporters while laying out the rules.

A detailed version of the guidelines will be released later and will go into effect three months later, the government said. He did not specify the date, however.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Twitter declined to comment.

Reuters on Wednesday released the draft rules, which give businesses a maximum of 36 hours to remove content after receiving a government or legal order.

Prasad also told reporters that the rules would require companies to reveal the sender of a message or post when asked to do so under a legal order.

Tech companies are coming under stricter scrutiny around the world. Last week Facebook faced a global backlash from publishers and politicians after blocking news feeds in Australia in a dispute with the government over revenue sharing.

This prompted Australia to make last-minute changes to a law passed on Thursday to ensure Google and Facebook pay media companies for content, a step countries like Britain and Canada want to follow.

India’s rules will also require video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime to classify content into five categories based on the age of users, the government said.